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Scott Goodwin knows a thing or two about home field advantage – from winning state championships at Broughton to winning a national championship at UNC, the Carolina RailHawks goalie has played many games in front of a pro-Goodwin crowd.

“Every time playing around here I always have a big fan base and everything, a lot of family and friends coming to watch,” said Goodwin.

Which makes Goodwin’s last career stop that much more interesting. After finishing at UNC he didn’t go straight to playing for the RailHawks – despite their making an offer.

Instead Goodwin took a slight detour, making his pro soccer debut 3,000 miles away in Iceland.

“I absolutely loved it,” said Goodwin. “Just living there and everything was great. The people were awesome. The culture’s just amazing. But from a soccer standpoint, to go in there and get 20-plus games and, you know, quick stretch right as I’m coming out of college, it really helped me grow a lot as a goalkeeper and that was just invaluable for me.”

“There’s nothing better than making mistake, so to speak, and learning from them and being able to deal with them and come through and come out the other side and continue to focus on what you’re doing,” said RailHawks head coach Colin Clarke. “I know it was big for him, very big, for him to come in here with a lot of confidence.”

All that playing time is paying off now as Goodwin has led the RailHawks to back-to-back wins over Major League Soccer teams, including a shutout performance against the LA Galaxy in which he turned back Team USA legend Landon Donovan at point-blank range.

“That’s kinda always the dream, you always want to play against those guys but at the time you’re not really thinking about who’s shooting on you it’s just keep the ball out of the back of the net," said Goodwin. "But, you know, after having a little bit of time to reflect back it was a pretty special moment.”